The Philippines has begun cleaning up and assessing the damage from Typhoon Imbudo, the most powerful to hit the country since 1998, as it now makes its way towards Hong Kong.
Five people were killed, including four high school students, when they were struck by an uprooted tree yesterday while flooding and strong winds destroyed corn and rice crops in northern areas of the main island of Luzon, which bore the brunt of the storm
Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo put preliminary crop damage at about one billion pesos.
Disaster officials said they have no reports of additional casualties as they were still trying to get damage in the rice and corn-growing Cagayan Valley region in northern Philippines, which bore the brunt of the typhoon.
Yesterday, four high school students and a driver of a motorcyle taxi were killed after an uprooted tree fell on their vehicle in the island of Romblon in Visayas.
Imbudo, with winds of 190 kph (118 mph) and gusts of 230 kph (143 mph), swept the region on Tuesday, knocking out power and phone lines.
A housewife from Cagayan said yesterday Imbudo's "howling winds" ripped off the roof of her kitchen.
"It's really the strong winds that caused havoc," Melchor Rosales, executive officer of the National Disaster Coordinating Council, told journalists.
The Philippine weather bureau said Imbudo's strength slowed on Wednesday, with winds of 130 kph and gusts of 160 kph, after slamming the Sierra Madre and Cordillera mountain ranges on Luzon island.
Imbudo also induced heavy rains in wide areas in Visayas and Mindanao areas.
In Manila, classes resumed as the stormy weather eased.
Meteorologists said they expected Imbudo to leave the country later today and head towards Hong Kong.